MORECAMBE'S only lap dancing bar has been forced to close after failing to pull in the punters.

The Office on the promenade's lease is up for sale less than 18 months after the club first opened with an upstairs bar where naked women danced for paying customers.

Losses

But Alan Crookall, leaseholder of The Office, decided to cut his losses after custom dwindled away.

"It was a gamble that didn't work," said Mr Crookall. "The girls made money but there weren't enough customers coming through the doors to pay the bills.

"I've done my bit for Morecambe and I don't think I can do any more. I can't keep sitting in there hoping people will come in. It's a shame that it's now going to be another empty building on the promenade."

The Office first opened temporarily in August 2005 as a bar, then Mr Crookall applied to Lancaster City Council for a licence to hold pole dancing.

Despite some objections, the licence was granted and the pub re-opened at Easter 2006, when customers were charged 4 admission to see women perform topless exotic dance routines around a pole on a stage on the upstairs floor of the premises.

The bar proved popular at first and Mr Crookall told The Visitor he hoped it would "give a bit of oomph to the Morecambe social scene."

He then applied for permission to hold full lap dancing, which he received in the summer of last year.

Love

But the business began to struggle, even when admission charges were reduced to nothing.

"We had some regular customers who enjoyed coming in but not enough," said Mr Crookall.

"I absolutely love Morecambe but I don't like working there. Running a bar in Morecambe is really hard work.

"Morecambe needs to change. It needs more industry, maybe more power stations or shipbuilding like Barrow, where people are earning serious money to spend in the town. Then everybody benefits."

He said he would not rule out investing in Morecambe in future "if changes were made" but for now planned to concentrate on his Lancaster businesses Latinos and Crows restaurants.